Do you miss the rain yet, Houston?

Posted by Eric Berger at 6:36 AM on September 11, 2017

For Houston, Hurricane Harvey’s rainfall ended on Tuesday, August, 29. A few parts of the region have seen some light showers since then, but essentially it has been bone dry for the last 12 days. This has been exactly what the doctor ordered in terms of recovery from what likely will be the costliest natural disaster in US history. And the low humidity has been nice too. Yet already, our soils are starting to dry out. So when is the rain going to return? The short answer is not soon.

Houston got a lot of rainfall during Harvey, and then it has stopped. (National Weather Service)

Today

For most area school districts, this morning represents a second “back to school” day, and we will have fine weather, with lows this morning in the 60s, and highs today in the mid- to upper-80s.

Tuesday

We’re going to have one more really nice fall-like day on Tuesday, with lows generally in the low 60s across the area and some really nice, dry air blowing in from the northwest. Highs will be in the upper 80s. Savor the mornings, because change is coming.

Wednesday through Friday

Change has come. Sometime on Wednesday winds will shift to the southwest, and eventually the south, which will have the effect of bringing more typical September-like weather back to Houston. We can expect highs of around 90, or in the low 90s, and overnight low temperatures in the low 70s. Rain chances remain near zero.

Saturday and Sunday

Some atmospheric moisture will return to the area, but it’s going to have to contend with high-pressure. So, for the most part, expect rain chances to remain very low this weekend, with high temperatures continuing in the low 90s.

Tropics

Hurricane Irma moved into Florida on Sunday, bringing widespread effects, including power outages, damaging winds, and a large storm surge. It could have been worse—interaction with Cuba weakened the storm by about 40mph, and its strong winds bypassed the Miami area—but it’s still going to be pretty bad. A lesser rainfall and wind threat, Irma moves into Georgia today.

Hurricane Irma is rapidly weakening as it moves over land Monday morning and runs into wind shear. (NOAA)

Hurricane Jose continues to meander around the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, and it has weakened somewhat to a 105-mph storm. Despite some very hyperbolic predictions about Jose recurving to eventually hit the United States, we don’t expect that to occur at this time. Most likely, it will remain off shore and not become a significant threat.

Elsewhere, the tropics pose no immediate threat to Texas or the rest of the United States or Caribbean Sea.

30 thoughts on “Do you miss the rain yet, Houston?”

Kristine

I’ve heard that after the first cool front, and after September 15th, Houston is significantly less at risk for tropical storms / hurricanes, even though hurricane season stretches into November. Would you agree with that statement? I have family that wants to visit in early October and I would never want them stuck here during a tropical event. Thanks so much, you guys!

Blackhawks Fan

Mikke

I would have called it a proofreader offering his skills gratis to our host’s most worthy and admirable endeavor.

Really, youngens, we used to do things like this for one another back in the old days of communicatin’ in print. It wasn’t a joke or a meme. Just a way we made sure we presented our precisely framed ideas with precision of language. It was also in honor of our readers.

We also had this thing called “editors,” but those were considered a threat to all sorts of New Internet endeavors. So they were obliterated and replaced with Content Curators and AdBots.

j hestand

morning… and thanks for the update. and pardon the editing, though under ‘today’ subhead (1st sentence), did you mean ‘school districts’ instead of ‘should districts’? enjoy the last couple days of great weather, wish it would last.

Eric Berger

Patricia

As a retired English teacher, forty three years in the classroom, I have credentials to be the ultimate grammar nazi. However, I learned that although grammar rules are very necessary, consider the recent Supreme Court case about the Oxford comma, their primary purpose is to clarify meaning. Eric and Matt, your mistakes are usually mere typos with the occasional grammatical error due to exhaustion I suspect. Your dedication to informing us of the hypeless, just made up that word, but nearly always completely accurate weather forecast is more than all we can need or even expect. Thank you again for all you do.

Ronak

Michael Schnieders

Is there any chance that the excessive rain from Harvey had a positive effect in helping add to the Texas aquifer? I suspect that the time frame is too short, but after reading about ground deformation due to the weight of the water, I thought that it could be possible that the extra pressure could have helped feed the ground water.

Kevin

Mike

And Wunderground, the anti-Space City Weather, true to form, already has an article called, “No Rest for the Hurricane-Weary: Jose a Potential East Coast Threat.” I swear to God, the people at Wunderground live for this stuff. I wouldn’t even go there at all if it weren’t for the maps.